At the Center

Humanitarian Crises

Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2010

A meeting with a Haitian priest provides the jumping off point for Campus Ethics Director David DeCosse to reflect on the role of Catholic universities in responding to humanitarian crises in an article for "Explore," the journal of The Ignation Center at SCU. He writes:

"Catholic universities should come to see humanitarian crises not only as catastrophic irruptions outside the normal course of events, but also as crises that occur amid long social histories. The love that animates the immediate service of a Catholic university must not be separated from the scrutiny of the histories of injustice that almost always compound these disasters. This insistence on the inseparability of love and justice should not only play a role in the classroom, at campus religious services, and in public statements from university officials—it should also inform decisions that the university makes about how to address a humanitarian crisis in the years of rebuilding that may follow.